Source: AFP
Artificial intelligence production tools will save companies a lot of time and money, promises Vik Singh, a Microsoft vice president, even if the models have to learn to admit when they just don’t know what to do.
“To be really honest, what’s really missing today is that a model doesn’t throw up their hands and say, ‘Hey, I’m not sure, I need help,'” Singh told AFP in an interview.
Since last year, Microsoft, Google and their competitors have rapidly developed AI applications like ChatGPT, which generate all kinds of content on demand and give users the illusion of omniscience.
But despite the progress, they are still “hallucinating” or making up answers.
That’s a major problem for Copilot’s executive to solve: Singh’s enterprise customers can’t afford their AI systems to go off the rails, even occasionally.
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Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, said this week that he has seen many of his customers grow increasingly frustrated with the meanderings of Microsoft’s Copilot.
Singh insisted that “really smart people” were trying to find ways for a chatbot to admit “when it doesn’t know the right answer and ask for help.”
“Real Savings”
A more humble model would be no less useful, in Singh’s opinion. Even if the model has to be addressed to a human 50 percent of the time, that still saves “tons of money.”
To a Microsoft customer, “every time a new request is made, they’re spending $8 for a customer service representative to answer, so there’s real savings to be made, and it’s also a better experience for the customer because they get a faster response.”
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Singh arrived at Microsoft in January and this summer took over as head of the teams developing “Copilot,” Microsoft’s AI assistant that specializes in sales, accounting and online services.
These applications have the enormous task of generating revenue and justifying the huge investments in genetic AI.
At the height of the artificial intelligence frenzy, the startups driving the technology were promising systems so advanced they would “elevate humanity,” in the words of Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, which is primarily funded by Microsoft.
But for now, the new technology is mostly used to boost productivity and, hopefully, profits.
According to Microsoft, Copilot can research salespeople, freeing up time to call customers. Lumen, a telecommunications company, “saves about $50 million a year” by doing this, Singh said.
Singh’s teams are working to integrate Copilot directly into the tech giant’s software and make it more autonomous.
“Let’s say I’m a sales rep and I have a customer call,” suggested the executive. Two weeks later, the model can “prompt the rep to follow up, or better yet, it just goes and automatically sends the email on behalf of the rep because it’s been approved to do so.”
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“First Entry”
In other words, before a solution to global warming is found, artificial intelligence is expected to free humanity from boring, repetitive jobs.
“We’re in the first inning,” Singh said. “A lot of these things are productivity-based, but they obviously have huge benefits.”
Will all these productivity gains translate into job losses?
Leaders of major companies such as K Krithivasan, boss of Indian IT giant TCS, have declared that genetic artificial intelligence will eliminate all call centers.
But Singh, like many Silicon Valley executives, is counting on technology to make people more creative and even create new jobs.
He pointed to his experience at Yahoo in 2008, when a dozen editors selected articles for the home page.
“We got used to the idea of using artificial intelligence to streamline that process, and some people asked, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen to the employees?’ Singh said.
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The automated system made it possible to refresh content faster, thus increasing the number of link clicks and the need for new articles.
“In the end,” the executive said, “we had to hire more editors.”
Source: AFP
